Al Pike: Dana does his best in Boston

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Posted Apr. 22, 2013 at 3:15 AM

Posted Apr. 22, 2013 at 3:15 AM

Jon Dana doesn’t consider himself a hero.

“I wish I could make what I did grander,” he said, “but I can’t.”

Dana is the director of sports medicine for the University of New Hampshire. He was working his 37th consecutive Boston Marathon last Monday as a volunteer in the medical tent when tragedy struck near the finish line.

A bomb exploded 30 yards from where he was standing.

“I heard it and I saw it,” Dana said. “I was looking that way. The first one was disorienting a little. The second one it was clear now we’ve got a problem”

Another went off 12 seconds later a little further up the road.

“My first reaction was that it was a bad celebration idea,” he said. “My second reaction was something bad happened in a building. Something blew up.”

Dana’s job at the Marathon is to help any runners who are in physical distress after they cross the finish line.

His priorities had to change following explosions that left the ground covered in blood and littered with severed limbs.

“I wasn’t sure what the runners were going to do,” he said. “The police immediately diverted them off the street. When it became apparent they weren’t coming then I had to go into the first bomb site. I felt it was my responsibility as a medical person on the finish line to go.”

Dana works closely with the Wildcat football team and has seen his share of injuries, but nothing this catastrophic.

He was prepared for the worse.

“I remember thinking when I stepped into it I wish I didn’t have to,” he said. “It was obviously a big explosion and I knew I was going to see stuff I didn’t want to see.”

He first encountered a woman with a broken leg with a displaced fracture. He also found a mother and daughter lying on the ground hugging each other, their legs badly damaged.

“All I thought at the time was I need to find somebody to help,” Dana said. “It occurred to me that it was a bad idea to go over there. Part of that was because I knew I was going to see bad things and part of it was the bad things I was going to see were going to be difficult for me to manage from a medical point of view.”

Because of the placement of the bombs, most of the serious injuries were to lower extremities.

The scene was overwhelming.

“It’s a lot to process,” Dana said. “In the area of the first bomb there had to be 15 or 20 people seriously hurt. Out of that number I would guess 10 or 15 had amputations or severe fractures. There were a lot of bones sticking out. A lot of missing parts. From what I could see it was devastating. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He lost track of time.

“I didn’t put my hands on anybody,” he said. “I didn’t save anybody’s life. Initially, I was a little disappointed by that. I wish I could have done more. If I could do it all over again I would have stayed with that very first person that I saw. She was OK, she just needed somebody to be with her. I thought if I kept moving I would find somebody that needed my help more.”

The traumatic experience left Dana with mixed emotions. He’s proud of the fact that he tried to help. He also has feelings of frustration and guilt that he didn’t do more.

“That’s the thing that scares me the most about this,” he said, “but I went in. I would have felt a lot guiltier if I hadn’t. But a lot of things I thought I could take care of weren’t present.”

He’s also received many emails and text messages, some that nearly moved him to tears.

“As soon as I saw that you were there I knew everything was going to be all right,” one read.

“That’s difficult,” Dana said, “because I didn’t have that impact.”

Another message marveled at his bravery.

“Initially, the thing about not helping as much as I wanted is probably still the biggest issue for me,” he said. “In this environment I’m supposed to have the answers, and in that environment I didn’t.”

Al Pike is a staff sports writer for Foster’s Daily Democrat. He can be reached at 742-4455, ext. 5514, or at apike@fosters.com.